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In South Sudan Camp, Lives Compressed

MALAKAL, South Sudan — As an artist in Brooklyn working on a design for the World Trade Center memorial, Bradley Campbell chose water as a central element because it symbolized life, rejuvenation and rebirth.

A decade later and half a world away, the water that aid workers provided to Mr. Campbell, now a pastor, to his family and to the 10 orphans under their care was the difference between life and death.

As many as 22,000 people from around the world — from France and New Zealand, Ethiopia and South Africa — have found themselves at a camp set up inside a United Nations peacekeeping base just outside the northern city of Malakal. They are bound together by hunger and thirst, fear of the soldiers and rebels fighting outside, and a desire to go somewhere safe.

“We need the humanitarians to take us somewhere to save our lives,” said Hoth Gatkuoth, 27, who had taken shelter in a broken-down white sport utility vehicle before moving into the camp. He said that people had begun to quarrel and that he feared it would get worse if conditions did not improve. “After two days, the people will fight inside the camp,” he said.

South Sudan was plunged into violence two weeks ago when a political struggle in the capital turned into a bloody ethnic conflict, with more than a thousand deaths reported nationwide. After days of pitched fighting last week, with stray bullets wounding even those inside the United Nations compound, government forces retook Malakal. But former Vice President Riek Machar is still refusing to sit down for peace talks with President Salva Kiir, who has accused Mr. Machar of attempting a coup.

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Bradley Campbell, at center, took part in a prayer service at a United Nations camp for displaced people in Malakal.Credit
Nicholas Kulish/The New York Times

Others at the camp on Sunday were sitting inside sweltering metal shipping containers that at least provided some protection from the harsh midday sun. “The soldiers took all our money,” said Sami Tsegay, 20, from Eritrea. “We have nothing to drink, nothing to eat, nowhere to go to the toilet.”

The stench of human waste baking in the sun was overwhelming, and humanitarian workers were preoccupied by the possibility of an outbreak of a communicable disease like cholera. And as if that were not enough, the displaced residents of Malakal said, there were also snakes to worry about.

In the strategic city of Bor, 230 miles south of Malakal, there were fears of renewed fighting after a column of young men was seen approaching. Joseph Contreras, a spokesman for the United Nations mission in South Sudan, said a reconnaissance flight had spotted the armed youth on the road to Bor.

Mr. Contreras called their presence “a voluntary and unpredictable ingredient in the present security situation,” one that placed “unarmed civilians at even greater risk.”

The continuing threats left Mr. Campbell, 44, and his wife, Kim, with a difficult decision. As American citizens, they and their two daughters had the option of taking an evacuation flight rumored to be coming later in the day, but they did not know if the orphans, ages 6 to 17, could come with them.

Ms. Campbell, 54, said that if they could not bring the children, they would stay. “When you hear about it, read about it, it’s always someone else, somewhere else,” she said. “These are real lives and real people.”

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They were doing better than most at the makeshift camp, but that still meant sleeping in a recreation room with 24 people, the smallest of the children bedding down on the pool table. For food, which was so scarce that even United Nations workers were running out, they rationed the cashews, dried apples and beef jerky they had brought with them from the orphanage in Malakal.

It was a far cry from Mr. Campbell’s days as a visual artist living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A decade ago he was enjoying success after “Lower Waters,” the memorial design proposal by Mr. Campbell and his partner, Matthias Neumann, was among the eight finalists in the World Trade Center competition, which had attracted entries from around the world.

But he gave up art and found his calling as a pastor. His mission, working with orphans in South Sudan, was a difficult job even under normal circumstances. During last week’s fighting, a bullet pierced the window of the family’s bedroom; another severed a branch from the lemon tree in their yard. They hid under beds with their daughters and the orphans.

“This is the first time I’m going to preach in a T-shirt going on seven days without a shower,” Mr. Campbell said as he prepared for a Sunday church service at an outdoor bar and cafe, known as the Hard Rock Cafe Malakal, where United Nations personnel used to sip beer.

The Campbells kept their spirits up by praying and focusing on the welfare of the children, who they said had been through enough in their short lives. One of them, Ngurri Akim, 17, had lost an arm in an electrocution accident when he was living on the streets.

“Ultimately, I don’t know what I would do if not for these kids we’re trying to take care of,” Mr. Campbell said. “Light shines in the darkness,” he added, paraphrasing a passage from the Bible, “and the darkness will not overpower it.”

A version of this article appears in print on December 30, 2013, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: In South Sudan Camp, Lives Compressed. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe